Despite OpEd News, today was a notable day for journalism as the
Pulitzer Prizes were announced. Journalism is supposed to serve the
public, to inform the public. This is required in a democracy because
the people determine the government and they need to hold their
officials accountable. So the big prize is "PUBLIC SERVICE"
and the award there went to the Washington Post and the Guardian US for
their coverage of the illegal spying. NSA whistle-blower Ed Snowden issued a statement via the Freedom of the Press Foundation:

I
am grateful to the committee for their recognition of the efforts of
those involved in the last year's reporting, and join others around the
world in congratulating Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman,
Ewen MacAskill, and all of the others at the Guardian and Washington
Post on winning the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the
public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave
reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of
extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of
journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so
many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now
recognizes was work of vital public importance.This decision reminds us that what no individual conscience can
change, a free press can. My efforts would have been meaningless without
the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers, and they have
my gratitude and respect for their extraordinary service to our society.
Their work has given us a better future and a more accountable
democracy.

Ed Snowden is an American citizen and whistle-blower who had
been employed by the CIA and by the NSA before leaving government
employment for the more lucrative world of contracting. At the time he
blew the whistle, he was working for Booz Allen Hamilton doing NSA
work. As he notes in his statement, many reporters at both outlets reported on the very important story. Glenn Greenwald (Guardian) had the first scoop on Snowden's revelations that the US
government was spying on American citizens, keeping the data on every
phone call made in the United States (and in Europe as well) while also
spying on internet use via PRISM and Tempora.

An investigation into veterans being discharged from the military
without benefits after relatively minor offenses won the Colorado
Springs Gazette newspaper and reporter Dave Philipps a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.[. . .]

Philipps’ three-day series, called “Other Than Honorable,” looked
into how soliders’ discharge status after they returned home from
overseas tours of duty left them struggling. The stories were published May 19-21, 2013.

The Pulitzers also honor the world of publishing -- fiction and
non-fiction -- and the arts. The winners in the Books, Drama and Music
field:

Votes hadn't even been counting but Quil was selling victory for Nouri.
It would take days to count the votes the first time (and Nouri's loss
would lead to Nouri demanding a recount -- which he'd also lose). But
with no votes counted, Quil was whoring for Nouri.

The Quil Lawrence Award recognizes an individual posing as a reporter in order to whore.

The Quil Lawrence Award this years goes to Jane Arraf who has surpassed
her Saddam Hussein-era whoring while she was Baghdad Bureau Chief for
CNN. April 11, 2003, the New York Times published Eason Jordan's "The News We Kept To Ourselves." Other who worked for CNN during the Hussein-era have offered their own examples. Jane never has.

She's not just being stupid, she's lying. Check her Twitter feed. She
knows better than anyone what happened in Hawija. There was a push to
portray it as though Friday April 19, 2013, poor innocent security
forces were attacked by protesters. No, they weren't. The attack took
place near empty houses, not at the protest site. More importantly,
there was a blackout on the fact that prior to that, the protesters were
attacked by the security forces -- one was killed. Jane Tweeted about
it -- she never used it in any reporting and she acts as though it
didn't take place. But it exists:

How do you Tweet it and then forget it, never write about it, never report on it?

How indeed.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that Nouri comes off better in her
Christian Science Monitor article if she pins the blame for the violence
on the protesters?

And it's also just a coincidence that she also offers 'analysis' that is wrong but helps Nouri:

A surprise move by influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to
withdraw from the political process is expected to benefit Maliki. It
allows him to go after large numbers of votes from poor, dispossessed
Shiites hoping for more jobs and better services.Maliki might be
aided, too, by political disarray among the Kurds. The absence of Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, who has been undergoing medical treatment, has
led to a leadership struggle for his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one
of the three main Kurdish parties. Almost six months after provincial
elections, the main Kurdish parties have not been able to agree on their
own regional government.

A) Moqtada. The cleric and movement leader's followers will not be voting for Nouri. We went into the whys of that in the February 18th snapshot.
You can refer to that. Since then, Moqtada has twice called for Nouri
not to seek a third term (the last time was last week). In addition,
Moqtada's now-ended 'retirement' never meant that candidates from the
Sadr bloc weren't going to run. When Moqtada made the announcement, the
Sadr bloc immediately had to decide whether they would field candidates
or not and they decided they would.

He's in Germany. He's been there since his stroke. December 2012, Iraqi
President Jalal
Talabani suffered a stroke. The incident took place late on December
17, 2012 following Jalal's argument with Iraq's prime minister and chief thug Nouri al-Maliki (see the December 18, 2012 snapshot). Jalal was admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital. Thursday, December 20, 2012,
he was moved to Germany. He remains in Germany currently.

Jane may not tell you about that but the PUK can. They can tell you
about the screaming Nouri did at Jalal, about the threats he made to
Jalal and about how, as soon as Nouri left Jalal's office, Jalal had his
stroke.

The Iraq Times and Kitabat
are both reporting that insiders are saying the collapse Monday night
followed a verbal altercation with Nouri al-Maliki. According to an
unnamed source or unnamed sources with Talabani's office, Nouri arrived
last Monday evening at Talabani's office and as the political crisis was
discussed, Jalal called for Nouri to lower the rhetoric (as he has done
publicly) but he was referring to what Nouri was stating to him at that
moment. This call to lower the rhetoric was met by a "violent
explosion" from Nouri who called into question whether Jalal was able to
be impartial or neutral. Nouri is said to have brought up the effort
last spring to seek a no-confidence vote on Nouri in Parliament. Jalal
is said to have remained civil, asked that Nouri consider the options
for resolving the crisis, Nouri was shown out and as soon as he was out
of the office, Jalal complained of ill health.